14 DAY TRIAL // As of recently, right whales inhabiting the waters off the Argentine coastline have experienced a steady decline in their population.
Conservationists now say that, as surprising as this may sound, seagulls might be the ones to blame for the fact that ever fewer right whales are left to live in these waters.
Several reports show that, since 2003 until present day, a total of such 605 marine mammals have passed away in the Península Valdés region.
Of these, 88% were newborn calves, Mongabay informs us.
Commenting on these troubling mortality rates, Vicky Rowntree of the Ocean Alliance and the University of Utah made the following observations:
“Our long-term data indicate that the Península Valdés whales were increasing steadily at close to 7% per year until recently. Elevated calf mortality is reducing that growth rate substantially (by nearly a third in one estimate). If this continues, we just don’t know what will happen.”
Specialists suspect that local seagulls need be blamed for the death of most of these whales.
Thus, it is being said that these birds attack the whales, peck at them and feed on whatever chunks of skin or blubber they manage to tear.
While mature right whales are likely to recover from such attacks fairly easily, calves are not that lucky.
More precisely, the lesions they suffer when attacked by seagulls take their toll on the calves' health, and some might even die because of the severity of their wounds.
“The attacks are very painful and cause large, deep lesions, particularly on the backs of young 2-6 week-old calves,” conservationists say.
“This harassment can last for hours at a time. The gull harassment and the extensive wounds they make must have a very negative effect on the health and body condition of these whales and is certainly very stressful,” they further detail.
Given the death rate of right whale calves in these waters, green-oriented groups fear that the animals' long-term survival is seriously threatened and urge that measures be taken to solve this problem.